Ah wonder! when he lifted it again, dazzled and dripping, he saw
across the Pond a figure rising from the water, the figure, as he
could now perceive in the fuller light, of a girl, clear to the
waist. Her face was half turned from him, and her hair flowed half
to him and half away, but within that cloudy setting gleamed the
lines of her lovely neck and one white shoulder and one moonlit
breast, whose undercurve appeared to float upon the Pond like the
petal of a waterlily. So he knelt on his side and she on hers, both
motionless, and he heart leaped (even as it had leaped at the bird's
song) with a longing to kneel beside and even touch that loveliness;
or, if he could not, at least to call to her across the Pond so that
he would turn and reveal to him what still was hidden. He was in
fact about to do so, when suddenly his senses were overwhelmed with
a sweet anguish, darkness fell on him, and from its very core he
sneezed twice, violently. This interruption of the previous spell
was sufficient to bring him to a realization of his peril, and
rising hastily he ran back to the Ring, where he remained till
morning. But to what pious thoughts he then committed himself I
cannot tell you; neither in what feverish fashion he got through
Sunday.

On Monday morning when he arrived at the forge he found the Lad at
work before him, and ebony was not blacker than his face. He glanced
at the King with some show of temper, but only said:

"You look worn out."

"I have had bad dreams," said the King. "Excuse me for being behind
my time. I will try to make up for it by wasting no more, and
fashioning instantly two shoes as good as that I made on Saturday."